Marine mavens, the wreck is the sister ship of the Vasa, which sank off Stockholm in 1628.
Swedish maritime archaeologists have discovered the long-lost sister ship of the seventeenth-century warship Vasa, which sank on its maiden voyage, the Swedish Shipwreck Museum said.
Launched in 1629, Äpplet (the Apple) built through the same shipbuilder as the celebrated 69-metre Vasa, which was carrying 64 guns when she sank on her maiden voyage off Beckholmen in the capital, Stockholm.
“Our pulse quickened when we saw how similar the shipwreck was to Vasa,” said Jim Hansson, a marine archaeologist at the museum.
Hansson said the structure and dimensions sounded “very familiar” to him, raising hopes that it would only be one of Vasa’s sister ships. While parts of the sides of the ship had fallen, the hull was retained to the lower deck, and the parts that had fallen showed two staggered ports.
The massive shipwreck was discovered in December 2021 in a strait off Vaxholm Island, just outside Stockholm, according to the museum. noted about Vasa.
The museum said the main technical points, as well as the measurements and wood samples, showed that it was indeed an applet.
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In 2019, the museum reported on the discovery of two other warships in the same area. Archaeologists at the time thought one of them might have been Äapplet, but additional studies have shown that those ships were two medium-sized warships from 1648 named Apollo and Maria. .
“With Äpplet, we can load the key piece of the puzzle in the progression of Swedish shipbuilding,” Hansson said, adding that it allowed researchers to examine the differences between Äpplet and Vasa.
Named after the House of Vasa, the royal dynasty of the time, Vasa was intended to serve as a symbol of the power of the Swedish army, but capsized after traveling just over 1,000 meters. It was recovered in 1961 and is on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, one of Sweden’s most popular tourist spots.
Three other ships were commissioned from the same shipbuilder: Äpplet, Kronan (the Crown) and Sceptre, and their predecessor, served in the Swedish Navy and participated in naval battles.
The ships are believed to have sunk after they were decommissioned, serving as submarine strips of spikes to hitch enemy ships.
This article was amended on October 25, 2022. A previous edition referred to shipping as Applet, when it is Äpplet, meaning “the apple” instead of “apple”. The subtitle indicates that Vasa sank in 1629 while sinking a year earlier. It was Applet that sank in a strait off the island of Vaxholm, not Vasa, that sank off Beckholmen. In addition, Vasa’s call comes from the House of Vasa, which is named in particular after one of the kings of Sweden.